WEST CHESTER – Really good basketball teams are often able to flip a switch once conference games commence, upping important winning elements like execution and intensity.

But on Saturday in the PSAC opener at Hollinger Fieldhouse, the West Chester women were asleep at the switch in the first half against Calilfornia (Pa.), and a thorough lopsided 78-66 setback resulted. Up next is another tough crossover clash with Indiana (Pa.) scheduled for this afternoon.

“I said to them, ‘welcome to the PSAC,’” head coach Deirdre Kane said. “IUP is, theoretically, a better team than Cal.”

Tabbed by league coaches to finish in the middle of the pack in the brutally tough PSAC West, the visiting Vulcans (4-0 overall) seized the early lead and never looked back, handing the Golden Rams their first loss of the 2012-13 campaign. West Chester (3-1) was picked to finish second in what is already looking like an inferior PSAC East.

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“It took us a half to get off of our heels and start leaning down and going forward,” Kane acknowledged.

“I am proud of the effort in the second half but it needed to be there in the first. And it wasn’t just effort but also smarts. We have to stop throwing it right into their hands. We spotted them 12 points.”

Kane’s starters got off to a shaky start and WCU never really recovered. But truthfully, the second unit didn’t fare any better in the early going either.

“The physical-ness of the game definitely caught us off guard,” said star forward Alexandra Lennon. “But this is what the PSAC is.

“We’ve had good teams for many years here at West Chester and we have a target on our backs. Coach warned us that (Cal) was coming for us and we didn’t take heed until the second half.”

In its first two playing stints of the game, the starting unit was outscored 21-10. And even though the group turned it around in the final few minutes of the first half, the deficit was already 44-28.

The biggest culprit: turnovers, and more often than not, the Vulcans turned those miscues into easy points at the other end. And there were issues on the boards as Cal was plus-11 in the opening 20 minutes.

“The physicality and speed of the game is what it always is against teams from the West, and it’s hard to simulate it in practice no matter how much you try to prepare,” Kane said. “I thought some of our younger players adjusted better than our returning players.”

In the second half, Lennon showed why she is regarded as one of the premier post players in the region, but it was too late to initiate any sort of meaningful comeback. Lennon poured in eight of her 22 points at the start of period number two, sparking an 8-2 run that sliced the margin to 46-36.

But West Chester’s second five were unable to maintain the momentum, or check Cal’s backup guard Ashley Hines, who scored eight of her 18 points in the ensuing three minutes of action. The deficit hovered around 15 points the rest of the way.

“No game is over until the final second but it was almost too late,” Lennon said of the early second-half surge. “It’s always hard going uphill, and with the style of play we play, we are already exerting a lot of energy.”

Lennon wound up scoring 14 points in the second half and finished with nine rebounds and four assists. Freshman Jazzy Clark chipped in 14 points, but the rest of WCU’s backcourt players shot a combined 4-for-19.

“That will never cut it,” Kane said. “They weren’t even getting off shots. Paige Elliott only got off two shots in 17 minutes. She usually gets off four in a minute.”

The Rams will need to regroup in a big hurry to avoid an 0-2 hole to start the conference slate.

“That’s the good thing about basketball,” Lennon explained. “Unlike football – where you have to wait a week to play again -- we will wake up (today), come back into the same gym and hopefully do the same things we did in the second half.”

NOTES: Lennon established the school record for blocks in the first half. The 6-foot-2 senior had four on Saturday, upping her career total to 216 … Freshman starter Dallas Ely missed the game – and will reportedly miss today’s contest with Indiana (Pa.) -- due to a concussion. She was replaced in the lineup by Elliott, but the junior guard did not score a point and was later benched in favor of Carly Strickland, who also did not score.